Comcast deal started, but didn’t finish, the job of defining the CPUC’s broadband regulatory role

A lot of energy and angst was expended over the defunct Comcast – Time Warner – Charter mega-merger and market swap, much of it involving the California Public Utilities Commission’s review of the deal. With the abrupt end to the transaction, there’s nothing much left to do about it until the next dealmaker comes along to pick up the pieces. But it wasn’t all wasted work.

The process set the CPUC on the path to overseeing broadband infrastructure, services and markets in California. Coming as it did in the middle of the debate over imposing common carrier utility rules on the broadband industry, the Comcast deal turned a theoretical debate into practical deliberations over what should be done.

With the collapse of the merger, though, there’s nothing for commissioners to actually adopt as policy, and no opportunity to see if it survives the inevitable legal challenges. But there is a solid record of debate and mounds of evidence regarding how much authority the CPUC has over broadband infrastructure and services in California. The next time the question comes up – perhaps as the commission ponders Frontier’s proposed purchase of Verizon’s wireline systems – we’ll already be a long way towards getting a definitive answer.